At a press conference, the group representing members of civil society stated “the absence of legitimate and credible conditions that guarantee a free, fair and transparent electoral process”.
Laurinda Gouveia, an activist who was part of the well-known 15+2 process in 2015, read the manifesto, pointing out as one of the irregularities the hiring of the Spanish company Indra, supplier of computer material for the general elections, proposing the cancellation of the public tender for its hiring and withdrawal from the electoral process, in addition to the “defects of the current Organic Law on Elections, which annuls municipal scrutiny and the failure to establish summary minutes at polling stations”.
Among other complaints, members representing civil society point to the unequal treatment of parties by the public media and the existence of deceased persons on the electoral roll.
In this sense, “members of civil society propose not holding the general elections on the day and month set by the President of the Republic, that is, on August 24, 2022”.
In turn, activist Adolfo Campos, from the Angolan Revolutionary Movement, stated that “the elections are not being transparent for Angolans”.
“And we don't need to have another five years of suffering, we as civil society are here to ask for the 2022 general elections to be annulled and for a new methodology of work or operation of the 2022 general elections to be reaffirmed, because the Indra company does not give us confidence and the MPLA was very involved in this electoral registration”, said Adolfo Campos.
Criticism was also directed at opposition political parties, which together with the ruling party “insist on holding elections that are not fair”.
“We understand that all political parties that are going to run in these 2022 general elections are colluding with the suffering of the Angolan people and we will not allow that, as young people. We need a fair and transparent Angola, these elections have to be fair and transparent”, he reaffirmed.
Osvaldo Caholo, an activist who in 2015 was also arrested and tried in the process known as 15+2, warned that “peace and stability do not depend on political parties, much less depend on that muzzled civil society, which, in fact, is among the political parties”. politicians, are co-opted and enter into agreements”.
“We are going to witness here, for the first time, the emergence of an independent civil society, which does not follow any party. This civil society will be able to define the Angolan operational theater in recent times”, he said.
“I am saying that all the living forces, all sensitivities, including this civil society, are of paramount importance in the role of peace and stability, because politicians go to elections and we will certainly challenge this electoral act”, he added.
The group announced a march on the 17th of August, in response to the challenge request that will be submitted to the Constitutional Court next Tuesday, expressing confidence in a positive response to their action, otherwise they will resort to the rights of manifestations.
Laurinda Gouveia criticized the opposition political parties: “Even seeing the situation in which the people are, they insist on moving forward, they cannot take a coherent position for the benefit of the Angolan people”. “We are tired of being in the wake of political parties, we do not want to be considered a mass, we are people, we are people, we are the ones who have to legitimize our rulers”, she stressed.
Asked why they are now going to submit this request for impeachment a few days before the elections, Adolfo Campos replied that Angolans are a people that understands to “wait”.
“We hope! The laws were made unfairly, we know that the opposition parties were not able to oppose the same laws, because the party in power has an absolute majority (…). We hoped that political parties could solve the problem in the political sphere, but we saw that there was no consensus and a congregation on the same laws and this led us to understand that political parties could oppose in another way, not even go to the elections, but we have seen that this is not so. The opposition, even mentioning fraud every day, is campaigning and this has led us to take a position as a civil society, not to accept the 2022 elections,” he said.
The press conference took place this Friday morning, at 10 am, in the Cazenga neighborhood, where young people blocked a street with tables to speak to journalists.
The traffic impediment led, at the end of the activity, to the intervention of the police who questioned the young people about the reasons for the blockade, with no other consequences.
